Process for the rolling of thin sheet metal



Piev. 16, 15%37. L. SAI VES PROCESS FOR THE ROLLING OF THIN SHEET METAL Filed June 10, 1936 Patented Nov. 16, 1937 PROCESS FOR T ROLLING OF S ET mam.

Lon Saives, Billancourt, France, assignor to Renault, Billancourt, France Application June 10,

1936, Serial No. 84,565

In France October 16, .1935

llClaim.

A known process for the rolling of thin sheet metal consists in the use of a mill containing four rolls adapted for cold rolling, which provides for great reductions in thickness, the sheet being seized at the front and rear of the mill by a reel for winding under tension, by which the sheet can be wound while exerting a suflicient force to aid in the rolling operation and to maintain the sheet in the straight position.

One of the difficulties in the use of this process consists in the fact that the part of the sheet located between the axis of the mill, on the one hand, and each of the said reels, on the other hand, is never rolled, and thus represents waste material.

, If the process commences with the use of "hotrolled blanks of sufficient length (for instance several hundred meters) this waste can be considered as insignificant. But in the case in which, as is the general rule in Europe, the process is started with the use of hot-rolled blanks whose length does not exceed some twenty meters, it is impossible to operate with two winding reels.

For this reason, the-following process must be employed.

The sheet is rolled from the front to the rear of the mill, it being .drawn by a single winding reel which is mounted at the rear, and when thesheet has been entirely rolled, it is necessary, for the next operation, to remove the sheet from the reel and to bring it to the front part of the mill, which causes a considerable loss of time. Furthermore, this method is not as satisfactory from a technical standpoint as the method of operating with two reels.

The present invention relates to a method and a device for the rolling of thin sheets by the reversible process, which thus eliminates the drawbacks inherent in the rolling'of a sheet always in the same direction, while at the same time it will avoid the considerable loss of sheet metal at each end of the reel of the rolled sheet metal. The said process consists essentially in the use, for the rolling of the sheet under tension, of auxiliary sheets which are secured to the ends of the sheet to be rolled, by a special machine situated adj acent the rolling mill,-andin engaging the said auxiliary sheets with the winding reels, whereby the sheet under treatment may be rolled upon its entire length, while the auxiliary sheets alone will not be laminated. At the end of the operation upon a sheet, the sheet is cut off at the ends, and the auxiliary sheets can be used again for another reel of sheet metal to be rolled.

The accompanying drawing shows by way of Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view showing the Y plant and the sheet metal piece at the time at which the first auxiliary sheet is attached to the end of the sheet to be rolled.

Fig. v2 shows the same plant at the time at which the second auxiliary sheet is attached to the other end of the sheet to be rolled.

The rolling mill l consists of a frame having four rolls, and the sheet to be rolled passes between the two rolls 2 and 3.

For the rolling of a reel of sheet metal in conformity to the invention, the sheet may be run through several times without tension, in the first place, in order to reduce the thickness of the sheet. When the sheet is then to be passed through under tension, the reel of sheet metal to be rolled is mounted at 4 on an unwinding device, then engaging between the rolls an auxiliary sheet 5 from the rear to the front, 1. e., in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 1. When the said auxiliary sheet has been engaged in the rolls, it is secured to the sheet 6 to be rolled, by means of a machine I which is located in front of the mill; this machine may be a welding or a clasping machine.

when the sheets have been secured together, the auxiliary sheet 5 is engaged in the reel 8 adapted for winding under tension, which is then set in operation and draws the sheet to be rolled in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 2. When the rear end of the sheet 6 arrives at the machine I (Figure 2), a second auxiliary sheet 9 is attached to this end, which sheet is wound upon a winding reel in under tension, situated in front of the rolling mill, in the same conditions as above mentioned. For the succeeding rolling treatments, the reversing process can be used, the mill being reversed each time that one of the attaching lines comes near the line of tangency of the rollers 2 and 3.

'An automatic exploring and contact device may be employed in order to break the electric circuit for the rolling mill at a predetermined point.

When the sheet is to be cut up, the attaching part will first be cut off, and it will thus be possible to recover each of the auxiliary sheets, and these can be used again until they finally become too short, in which case they are still recovered in the shape of an ordinary piece of sheet metal.

I claim:

A process for rolling sheets of metal in a rolling mill 'and for attaching leader strips thereto consisting in feeding the end of a leader strip until the second weld reaches the rollers, successively rolling the metal sheet back and forth between the rollers until the desired thickness is.

obtained,- and finally cutting the leader strips from the rolled sheet at the welds.

LEON ss. 

